The 25th Birthday
by Helena Fallon
Summary: This was written a year ago but I was reminded of it after watching a repeated episode last night. Throughout the first season, Reid's appearance and confidence grows but does the team adjust to these changes.His 25th birthday makes them think.


**The 25****th** **Birthday**

**By Helena Fallon**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds and no infringement of copyright is intended.**

This takes place at the end of the first season, just before Fisher King.

Friday: 3 p.m.

"Hey Reid!" Morgan raised his voice to get the younger man's attention, who was busy word-processing his report on his laptop.

Gideon leaned back in his seat, seemingly engrossed in a report, but Hotchner knew he was observing the homeward bound team.

"Mmm…" Reid intoned, not even bothering to stop the quiet tapping rhythm.

"Doing anything this weekend?" Morgan probed good humouredly.

"Yeah, I'm busy," Reid replied, his eyes never leaving the screen.

Hotch raised his eyes from his own laptop and exchanged a knowing look with the oldest man on the plane.

"What are you doing?" Morgan persisted in his teasing banter.

"I'm busy," Reid answered evenly, continuing to concentrate on the job in hand.

Gideon watched Morgan shrug and smile at Elle, who was sitting opposite him. Reid ignored the giggles from Morgan's end of the plane, where he was talking and winding down with Elle. J.J. was asleep, curled up on a double seat. Both Hotch and Gideon had noticed how Reid had begun to file his reports on the plane journey home if near a weekend. Morgan and Elle preferred to process their reports later. The two senior agents had noticed this change in Reid's pattern of working almost three months ago. It mirrored Hotchner's routine who used his 'air time', to get rid of some of his admin, in order to spend more 'conscience free' time with his family. Hotch and Gideon had come to their own conclusions individually. They had discussed their suspicions on quiet days back in the office.

There had been subtle changes, which as far as they were concerned, were all for the good. The genius, whose intelligence they shamelessly relied upon, could be appallingly socially awkward at times. He had the makings of a fine psychologist, who as a child had coped with a schizophrenic mother, but he did not necessarily use his psychological knowledge to help himself. Gideon was unsure whether his early attempts to socialise had been thwarted by his mentally sick mother, or being still a child on a university campus meant that you were always set apart. Gideon assumed that by the time he was researching his various doctorates, Spencer Reid had just buried himself in his studies and had avoided peer group friendships, particularly with women. However, recently the young agent seemed to be more at ease with himself and, as a consequence, this made him more comfortable in his work. He had been growing more confident with each case the team tackled, but there was something more to this than just his work within the team.

Reid's growing confidence in his abilities meant that he now stuttered less, if hardly ever, these days which added to this air of self confidence. The young man's hair was now longer and wavy. Gideon and Hotch had heard the women remark, amongst themselves, how this change had softened his bony facial features and the giraffe-like neck. Reid's dress was totally individual with his characteristic knitted vests and odd socks, but Quantico put this all down to the quirkiness that was the geekish Reid. However, the senior profilers noted that there was more colour co-ordination these days; the whole ensemble seemed to look right – except for the socks!

Gideon smiled to himself. Reid's clothes had always looked clean and ironed. When he had first joined the Bureau it was as if he didn't bother about his clothes. Gideon imagined that Reid had just grabbed the first clean socks out of the drawer and the first shirt and trousers out of the wardrobe. But now, the older man mused, there was more thought about the whole ensemble perhaps even the odd socks were deliberate.

Monday: 8 a.m.

Gideon had finished writing up his group observations and decided to reward himself with a cup of coffee. He'd been in since 6:45 to finish this work so that he could concentrate on the consults for the rest of the day, before his own psych. evaluation at 4:40 that afternoon. He made his way into the bullpen, nodding to Elle as she worked on her report. J.J. walked past, still in her coat but a 'wake up' mug of coffee in her hand.

"I think Spence may have the right idea these days," she shared with passing the senior agent.

Gideon's eyebrows rose expressing the unsaid "Oh!"

"You know, doing his reports on the plane…he may have a point, but I was just shattered on Friday. It must be all that coffee he drinks…" J.J. clarified.

Gideon smiled, if their genius was running on caffeine, he wondered how bad the withdrawal symptoms would be if they ever ran out of his fuel. Suddenly, Gideon's attention was drawn to the unusual arrival of Morgan before 8:30. Gideon knew that Morgan had done his paperwork before going home on Friday evening.

"Morning, you're early?" Gideon gently probed, keeping his voice light and teasing.

"Yeah, is Reid in yet?" Morgan asked, as he scanned the bullpen.

Elle looked up from her computer, "No, he's first for the psych. evaluation so doesn't have to be here until 9:15," she stated.

"Right," Morgan said tightly.

"Calm down, it's Reid, he'll be fine about it," Elle soothed.

"Fine about what?" Gideon asked, as he sensed there was something more to this. It had been Reid's birthday on Saturday but, unlike last year when there had been an impromptu cake, a non work day meant that Reid could have spent it as he wished. Gideon felt uneasy, what had Morgan done? It had been a seemingly innocent enquiry on the plane from Morgan.

Morgan looked into Gideon's searching eyes. The younger man flinched at the scrutiny and dropped his gaze, turning to Elle for support.

"Reid is usually in early, even on a psych. evaluation day, so what happened?" said Gideon, whose tone had noticeably hardened. Morgan was a good agent, a reliable member of the team but insensitive towards Reid. Gideon thought Morgan did not understand a whole childhood of bullying because he was a freak of nature with a mentally sick mother.

"Well?" prompted Gideon, who was suddenly the immovable object in Morgan's world.

At that moment, Reid strode in, his green cord jacket unbuttoned revealing a stone coloured heavy linen shirt (New, thought Gideon) and a green and blue silk tie (Present, thought Gideon).

The stone coloured chinos and brown leather belt with a plain buckle completed the ensemble; it was all very stylish. However, what really struck Gideon was Reid's suppressed anger revealed by the tightness in his features. The usually warm brown eyes were cold; the walk brusque and he stood his full 6foot 1inch height, looking down on both Morgan and Elle. Gideon stepped closer; he didn't think Reid would lash out physically towards Morgan but then again, Morgan could goad.

"Hey, man. I'm sorry about Saturday night," he said, "Elle, Garcia and I…"

"Yeah, Reid, no offence…" Elle began but she was unsure, she'd not seen their youngest agent with this presence about him before.

"I shall leave that to your consciences but my door lock has been changed along with the main entry door lock, so the keys you had made are useless." Reid coldly stated.

Gideon couldn't believe what he had just heard. Morgan swallowed. Elle looked to him to say something.

"There was no need…" Morgan began in a conciliatory tone.

"There was every need to change the locks. There are 8 apartments to my building, we expect each other to protect our security by the front door and I knew that my apartment was not a secure place now. I would never have dreamed of doing that to a colleague or a friend," said Reid firmly.

"You made copies of Reid's keys?" asked Gideon, hoping that he had misinterpreted the exchange.

"We were going to take him out. It was his birthday…it was a surprise. We thought he would ignore us, if we just rang the bell…" Morgan tried to explain, but as the words tumbled out, the bullpen fell silent and the betrayal of trust hung in the air.

Reid turned to mount the stairs to Hotchner's office. Hotch had sensed a change in the atmosphere and had come to his open door, in time to witness Morgan's ragged explanation. He followed Reid's approach and read his unspoken 'behind closed doors' look.

Hotch softly whispered, "Come in," and closed his office door behind them.

Gideon's voice was low and raw. " I want to see all three of you in my office now," sweeping up Garcia in his gaze, who was standing on the periphery. Gideon spun round firmly treading the stairs to his own domain; the two profilers and the computer expert meekly trailed behind, knowing that eyes followed their progress.

J.J. was stunned, 'surely they couldn't have done that!' she thought to herself.

"I would like to know what happened, Reid," Hotchner stated, "I need to know because you are obviously still upset about it."

"And you would not be if a colleague had stolen your keys, made duplicates and later used those keys to enter your home…"

"I would be furious and I can tell you are. You have every right to make a formal complaint against all three of them," the older man said.

"No, they are needed here rather than being suspended on report. But they had no respect for my privacy and that really annoys me. I do occasionally date women, nothing seems to last, but I'm sure that you and Gideon have had your own suspicions. But you two have left me alone over my private life, respecting me not to do anything to jeopardise my work here," the younger man explained.

"Yes," replied Hotchner gently, but knowing that nothing he could say could make this better. What the three of them had done was disgusting and he hoped that Reid and his lady had not been in an embarrassing situation.

"Morgan just tramples over me. I'm not a kid to be used just as the butt of his jokes. At his age he should be beyond hazing."

"Yes, he should," agreed Hotchner, "What he did was against the rules; he had no right to take your keys and duplicate them and then to include other members of this unit in entering your home. Even if you don't want to make a formal complaint, I cannot let these three, so-called responsible adults, getaway with no punishment. I have the right to raise this matter at their appraisals and to make a note of this on their files. Don't defend them!" he firmly halted the softening of Reid's stance, "They are all 10 years older than you and it's about time they acted it; this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated in this organisation. I just hope that they did not find you in an embarrassing…"

Meanwhile, in Gideon's office, three adults stood before their superior feeling very small and foolish. Nothing the three could say could alter what had happened. They each squirmed and knew that there was more to come from the unit chief after Gideon had finished with them. They did not know how they were going to win back Reid's trust nor the respect of the other members of the department. The news of this ill-conceived birthday surprise was going to get round the Bureau very quickly and the two profilers knew that they were going to get a rough ride. As Gideon kept pointing out to them, they were supposed to be profilers so where were their skills when planning this escapade.

Monday: 11a.m.

"Fortunately, they had been eating a meal they had cooked together when they crept in," Gideon said, but he still could not keep the disgust out of his voice.

"They will never treat him like a kid again," Hotch replied, he too was still annoyed with the three and had let each of them know, in very plain terms, how disappointed he was in their behaviour.

"We know he's not a kid, and as I pointed out to them, he's holding down a job and trying to have relationships outside work which is more than they are doing with their one night stands."

"Ouch, Gideon, that was tough!" replied Hotch.

"They need to realise that Reid is more stable than they are at the moment, and he's certainly more mature in his relationships," said Gideon sternly, "It went home. I'm glad you're disciplining all three because their behaviour was appalling and unacceptable in the Bureau. If they had done that to me, I'd have filed a formal complaint that night…they spoilt his birthday."

"I've warned them that I've made a note on their files and they are very lucky that Reid has been far more reasonable than other agents would have been. I've made Morgan pay for the replacement locks and the call out fees for the locksmith. All three have lost a weeks pay. I'll keep Morgan and Elle office bound, to cool their heels for a while, it'll give us a chance to give Anderson and Perez some time in the field." Hotch stated, hoping that the general disapproval of the department would pull these three into line.

The End.


End file.
